Director's Corner

As demonstrated again by the Tesla Technology Collaboration meeting last month at SLAC National Laboratory, no other future particle physics project has ever been so well understood both technologically and from the industrial mass production side than the ILC, reports European Regional Director Brian Foster. Foster also attended a one-off meeting with key players in plasma-wave acceleration - another possible collider for the future - where superconducting radiofrequency acceleration may also play a vital role.

Around the World

Japan's KEK laboratory took a step forward to realise the International Linear Collider on 6 January, issuing a “KEK-ILC Action Plan”. This plan blueprints how KEK should start its preparation towards the ILC when the Japanese government gives its green light for the project.

Feature

Quality factors, nitrogen doping and "the golden age" of superconducting radio frequency technology: an in-depth report from the recent TESLA technology collaboration meeting, also covered in this week's Director's Corner.

In the News

FACILITIES
Linear collider Japan should ramp up its expertise as it prepares to host the world’s next-generation particle smasher in the 2020s, reports the country’s High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) in Tsukuba. An action plan published on 6 January lays out the KEK’s goals for the preparation phases of the International Linear Collider, including a goal to triple the number of home-grown accelerator scientists and engineers.

ＩＬＣの国内誘致を目指す超党派の議員連盟は来月訪米する方向となり、鈴木厚人県立大学長や県ＩＬＣ推進協議会のメンバーが同行する。日米の協力関係構築を後押しし、実現に弾みをつlける考えだ。(Members of the Japanese Federation of Diet members to promote the realisation of the ILC will visit Washington DC next month. Astuto Suzuki, president of Iwate prefectural University and members of Iwate Prefecture International Linear Collider Promotion Council will join the delegation. They aim to give a boost on US-Japan collaboration toward the realization of the ILC)

ＫＥＫは８日までに、「ＫＥＫ－ＩＬＣアクションプラン」を策定した。文部科学省がＩＬＣの誘致建設を前提とした諸外国との交渉を始めることを正式決定した場合、想定されるスケジュールや組織体制、必要となる人材数をより明確に示し、本格的な準備へスムーズな移行を目指す。(KEK issuued KEK-ILC action plan for how KEK should start its preparation toward the International Linear Collider when the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), decides to initiate negotiations with foreign countries.)

Science: Currently in the planning stage, the International Linear Collider (ILC) is a collaborative effort among research groups in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Designed to complement the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the ILC will likely be built in Japan.

[T]he International Linear Collider (ILC) took another small step forward [Wednesday] when Japan’s High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) released a plan for getting the country ready to host the $10 billion project by tripling its relevant science and engineering workforce over the next 4 years,” (…)The organization “hopes to fill the gap by luring experienced hands as well as signing up new recruits.

The “Action Plan,” released yesterday, “is a small but critical point to show [the ministry] we will have the necessary manpower,” says Okada, who chaired the working group charged with drafting the plan. Japan also needs to demonstrate to potential international partners that the country will shoulder its share of the final design effort, he adds.

In April 2015, at meeting held in Tokyo, ILC scientists and engineers shared the technical design they’ve settled on and asked for government funding to move toward finals steps and construction. The Japanese government is already assessing the plans. (…) Physicists are discussing even grander (less fully baked) schemes. Bring it, 2016.